By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Coach Miranda Grooms and the West Union Lady Dragons high school softball squad kicked off their 2024 season on Saturday, March 22 with a trip across county lines to face the Georgetown Lady G-Men in a non-conference battle. Though the West Union girls had some bright spots on the day, the result was not what they were looking for as the Lady Dragons ended up on the short end of a 13-3 run-rule defeat.
The brisk Saturday contest got off to a promising start for West Union, as they plated a run in the top of the first when Sara Boldman singled and later came around to score on a base hit by Olivia Lewis. With that slim lead, though, the bottom of the first couldn’t have gone any worse for the visitors. The Lady G-Men sent 15 hitters to the plate, took advantage of a couple of West Union errors, and put 10 runs in the scorebook. In the bottom of the second, the home team added two more , holding a massive 12-1 advantage. after two innings.
West Union got a couple of those back in the top of the fourth. Shelby Stephenson led off with an infield hit and later scored on single to left off the bat of Jocelyn Hall. Hall later came home on a wild pitch to cut the Georgetown lead to 12-3. In the bottom of the fourth, the Lady G-Men tacked on one more to give them the 10-run lead necessary to enforce the run rule, all they had to do was hold the Lady Dragons in the top of the fifth. West Union got the first two hitters on base, singles by Boldman and Kenzie Stout, but the next three batters were retired to end the game.
The Lady Dragons garnered seven hits in the loss, led by two apiece from Boldman and Stout. Lily Reed was the starter and loser for West Union, giving up 12 runs, but only five of those were of the earned variety.
The Lady Dragons were right back in non-conference action on Monday afternoon with a trip to Portsmouth Clay and began Southern Hills Athletic Conference play on Tuesday, hosting the Ripley Lady Jays.
